The 2024 federal budget announced last week was billed as one that would benefit all generations, including Millennials and Gen Z.
Unfortunately, as a millennial, I can say that I don’t think it’s going to do much to help.
It’s gotten to the point where it’s a cliché, but my generation and those younger than me have had it tough. I graduated high school into an economy still reeling from the 2008 economic crisis, finished university into a job market still reeling from those effects, and when I was about to hit my stride there was a pandemic that came around and put all of my plans on the back-burner. All the while, the climate crisis has been getting worse, housing costs have skyrocketed, wages have stagnated (effectively decreasing, if you take inflation into account), and throw in a couple of wars and here we are. At the same time, corporations are making record profits, while I am paying more in taxes than some of their CEOs are.
I don’t want to speak for everyone in my generation, but the main issues I’m facing are housing inaccessibility, the cost of living, and what I would argue is the biggest issue of our time: climate change.
The budget is supposed to help people like me save money to buy a home. However, when the cost of everything else is so high, even putting a little bit aside is next to impossible. Having my on-time rent payments tied to my credit score will help me in a mortgage application, but I need that down payment first.
I actually think that the housing problem is more one of supply than demand. We just simply need to build more housing, and the more of it not tied to the market, the better. The government said they’d be opening up some federal lands for housing, but I think we need to build homes the same way we did in the post-war days. That kind of thing was not in the federal budget.
Contrary to some readers’ beliefs, I actually don’t make much money at all. At the end of the day, my expenses and income pretty much zero out, and that’s with me doing the bare minimum. I don’t go to concerts, events or even on trips unless it’s paid for by someone else. I just can’t afford it. One thing that could have helped with the cost of living would have been a windfall tax, or a tax on any profits that they would have not otherwise come across: for example, global trade impacting grocery and fuel availability. The (Conservative) UK government has one, charging 35 per cent on that profit, and they have even extended it for the better part of the next five years. However, we decided to go with a capital gains tax, and a pretty small one at that.
I don’t pretend to fully understand a capital gains tax, but in my opinion if you don’t understand what it means, you probably don’t pay it. I just understand that the people who will be affected will be absolutely fine. A windfall tax might not do much to reduce my grocery bill, but at least the government could put it to some other use.
It’s funny that I’m writing this on Earth Day. Five years ago, almost to the day, the government declared a climate emergency. They then promptly announced their intention to buy the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project. Well, during her speech, Minister Chrystia Freeland proudly declared that the pipeline was now finished. However, it didn’t seem to have the reaction she expected. The NDP and Greens were clearly not happy about it, and the Conservatives are opposed to everything the Liberals do. But even within her own party there seemed to be some misgivings. I could be wrong, I watched it over a livestream and there’s a lot of nuance lost in that, but it was definitely awkward.
I’m completely terrified of climate change. It has been scientifically proven time and again to be happening, and I’ve been doing everything in my power to lessen its impacts. I did like the move towards setting up a youth climate corps — an idea I’ve explored previously in this column — so we’ll see what happens with that.
Unfortunately, it seems like the government is focusing on other things. Tax credits will help parts of the economy become greener, but I think we need big infrastructure projects to make a real difference. Instead of electric vehicles, give me a train. Give me active transportation, give me solar farms and wind turbines. The trouble is, a lot of the green things we can do are antithetical to economic growth.
This budget was about “fairness for every generation,” but to me it felt like more half measures.